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Be Healthy

Fit4Fun in the coming weeks will be hosting some great, affordable and accessible summer sports camps here in Handsworth; to help you get in shape or keep active! There will be a range of sports, such as: Football, basketball, rugby, dodge ball and many more fun activities including urban street dancing and fitness drills so find something that suits you and come along.

This from Sandwell and West Birmingham Clinicla Commissioning Group via BVSC…

Sandwell Clinical Commissioning Group (SWB CCG) (buys and monitors) healthcare services on behalf of everyone living in the area. Every GP in Sandwell and West Birmingham is a member of the CCG. Your thoughts and experience of local healthcare services are important as they can help us commission only the highest quality care that meets the needs of the population that you serve.

The purpose of this meeting will be to meet with stakeholders within the surrounding areas of Handsworth Wood Medical Practice to create a village life around this practice and how we can work together

The Healthy Villages Team would want to understand some of the concerns within your organisation and the concerns of the population that you serve. We would want to address some key themes, understand some of the barriers and develop some solutions on a local level with your input.

Are you interested in being part of this exciting project for your population if so, please let me know if you would like to attend this meeting by dropping me a line on kallyjudge@nhs.net or by telephoning me on 0121 612 2829, further details of the event will follow.

The meeting is taking place on Tuesday 22nd July 2014 at (venue TBC), 11.00am-3.00pm.

Welcome back wonderful residents of Handsworth. I hope you had a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year with your friends and families. I don’t know about you, but I think for both Handsworth and the Birmingham City, 2013 was a great year. Who can forget the new opening of the Birmingham Library- the largest regional library in Europe, or the exciting festivals and events that we as a city and community we hosted. Whether you are going to University, quitting smoking, getting in shape or if you are doing something different this year – just make 2014 count! Live life, prosper and make the most of the opportunities that will arise.

What things are you looking forward to the most in 2014? Write and send them to me, the best I will post up throughout the year 😀

As well as encouraging residents to enjoy singing, a choir can bring members of the local community together and provides a chance to get to know each other in a relaxed environment.

Would you like to join the CBSO Handsworth Community Choir?
For more infomation or if you’re interested in joining CBSO Handsworth Community Choir please fill out the form or contact handsworthcommunitychoir@gmail.com or 07967 558 701.

You don’t need any prior singing experience, you don’t need to be able to read music, and you certainly don’t need to have the world’s greatest voice! There are no auditions. Everyone can sing: you just need enthusiasm – and to be willing to give it a go.

The choir is open all residents of the Handsworth area aged 18 or over.

Rehearsals
Weekly rehearsals are from 5.30pm – 7pm in the Red Hall at Rookery School.

The Lozells, Birchfield and Handsworth Community First Matched Fund has been allocated £67,820 to award in small grants between 2011 and 2015. Community First introduces a new approach to funding projects – leveraging time, money and other resources – helping neighbourhoods play a leading role in regenerating their area.

The outcomes that Community First will acieve are:-

Communities being able to help themselves and others.

Neighbourhood groups that are better able to express their needs and influence decisions made about that community.

Neighbourhood groups that are better able to take control of resources needed to make a difference – enhancing confidence, capability and partnership.

Grants of up to £1,500 are available for activities and projects in three priority areas:-

One thing that I love about the holidays, apart from the fact that it is one of the only times I can just relax, is the fact that there is so much going on and so many activities that your young ones can be part of.

Here is just some of those activities:

1. Black History Photography Project

Working in partnership with the MAC/Vanley Burke for young people to create photographic skills and produce pictures for gallery project.

To celebrate Black History Month, Soho House goes to Bollywood with free activities and workshops. Tours of the House explore intriguing links between the Lunar Society and the anti-slavery campaign in the 18th century.

Last Friday the 19th December we held our first ever Insight Day on Drugs & Alcohol this event focused on issues within the Perry Barr Constituency, this includes four wards Oscott, Perry Barr, Handsworth Wood & Lozells and East Handsworth.

This event was hosted by the Perry Barr Drug & Alcohol Sub Group and was aimed at local services, community organisations and resident led groups. Over the last 12 months we have been working as a group to look at a range of issues in relation to drugs & alcohol. The key aim is to increase opportunities to work together to address the impact that drugs & alcohol has on our neighbourhoods.

I know that in the main area that I work in Handsworth concerns about illicit drug use and particularly street drinking features high on the agenda for local residents.

We will now take forward information gathered from the day to help inform the action plan for the next 12 months and welcome opportunities to get feedback on this plan from local residents.

Please post any comments here or email me directly if you wish to comment on any aspect of drug or alcohol use in your neighbourhood?

Some of the agncies that took part in the day have a range of services and information that you can access via their websites:

There is still room in the health & heritage project for local residents to get involved and join the group who are researching health in Handsworth in the past and present.

People can commit as much or as little. No experience required as the group is well supported with some new and fun ways for people to go out and capture local stories about health. If you’re interested contact Geoff by telephone on 01922 474480 or email geoff@digitalnativeacademy.com

The project group are working towards completion of research by January 2011 with a dissemination and event in February.

Please get in touch if you’re interested. We are interested in gathering stories about places in Handsworth where people may have accessed health services or memories linked to sites on the heritage walk.

Last month the Healthy Histories Project started in Handsworth. The project is linked to the neighbourhood management plan for the priority neighbourhood and forms part of the Be Healthy theme. Within the priority neighbourhood there are real issues in relation to health and particularly health inequalities.

Through the Healthy Histories project we hope to map out what these health issues are and get a better understanding of what people’s health experience is? We are interested in how health has changed in Handsworth since the 19th Century? What conditions or diseases are still problems? How did new health issues emerge e.g. obesity?

We are also interested in how place may or may not impact on health? This is also linked to the range of services people can access locally and other issues such as housing that can have an impact on health.

The Project: a small group of health researchers made up of local residents have been recruited and will lead the research. They have the wonderful chance to develop skills in research, go on free field trips to various venues across Birmingham e.g. Think Tank and then the chance to develop their own art/digital exhibition.

There will also be two community days throughout the summer to help gather more information, engage with a wider group of residents and to raise awareness about local health issues.

More information will be posted here about these events shortly but here are the dates:

Healthy Histories Community Health Day on Friday 20th August 12-4pm @ Soho House